The seven-year-old company will be strengthening its footprint in China in 2017, while doubling its presence in Japan.

NEW DELHI: Grey Orange, the Singapore and Gurgaon-based robotics firm, is ramping up its growth plans as it makes entry into the Asia-Pacific markets and mulls public listings of its subsidiaries across the region.

Founded in 2009 by BITS Pilani alums, Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta, the seven-year-old company will be strengthening its footprint in China in 2017, while doubling its presence in Japan. “We will be completely going into China by early next year,” Kohli told ET.

“Ecommerce is going to be 50% of our business there. One part of our strategy, is to, principally, support the brands that go into ecommerce. We have also just set up an office in the Middle East.” As part of its push, the company has brought on board a number of executives, including Nalin Advani, who was formerly with Barco, as its Asia Pacific and Japan CEO, as well as former Google India and Microsoft executive Yaduvendra Singh as its global sales and marketing head.

“Going global has always been a mantra for Grey Orange. After establishing a leadership position in India, the question was always how quickly, and which international regions to pick first,” said Sanjay Nath, managing partner at Blume Ventures, an early investor in Grey Orange.

Besides ecommerce, the warehouse automation company, that caters to a number of India’s big online retailers and fast moving consumer goods conglomerates, is looking to enter new segments such as pharmaceuticals and auto spare parts, and has either signed up or is in talks with potential customers for the same.

“We will start looking into those around March or April next year. That’s one focus area for us, since these are very interesting markets,” Kohli said, adding that the revenue from global markets is expected to surpass the top-line generated from India over the next three to five years.

“In three years, our non-India business would be about 70% of our total business. I strongly believe that India will still continue growing, but it’s just that those markets will start taking over. But India will continue to be our biggest market for some more time,” he said. Grey Orange, which has subsidiaries in Japan, Germany, the UAE and China, may look to list them in their local bourses. An IPO for the Singapore-based parent, however, is at least 5-7 years away, according to Kohli.

If the company does indeed go ahead with the IPOs, it will be a rare case for an Indian startup doing so. While the country’s startup ecosystem has multiple ventures such as Flipkart and Droom, an online marketplace for used automobiles and auto services, that have shifted base to Singapore to get greater access to funding and entry into global markets, none of them have announced plans to list them.

Listing subsidiaries in some of the world’s biggest exchanges such as Hong Kong, Tokyo and Dubai will not only allow Grey Orange to raise capital but also smoothen its entry into these markets. “You can start having much better access to local customers, consider potential acquisitions and partnerships. We are still early when it comes to market maturation, and while access to capital is always there, it helps you build an excellent regional ecosystem in place,” Kohli said.

“Grey Orange’s choice to leverage a Singapore HQ hub and focus on penetrating large adjacent markets in Japan, China and South-East Asia has worked well…An Indian startup’s products have to be robust, adaptable and globally scalable,” Nath said. Besides a clutch of angel investors, Grey Orange has raised institutional money from New York-based investor Tiger Global and Blume Ventures. The company is, however, considering multiple acquisition opportunities.

It also announced its first strategic investment in February after it pumped in an undisclosed sum in Japanese ecommerce logistics provider GROUND Inc, which was founded by former Rakuten Logistics chief executive Hiratomo Miyata.